2024-25 Role Player All-Stars

It’s about time we honor the humble men who are stars in their roles

The All-Star game is a much-needed break from the continuous onslaught of NBA action. After months of travel, back-to-backs, overtimes, undertimes, and nationally broadcast games that never start on time, the NBA’s elite are gasping for breath. As a reward for being the primary generator of a billion-dollar industry, the NBA ships their most prized employees to a random city to rub elbows with corporate sponsors and participate in an exhibition everyone hates. And instead of humanizing these famous millionaires, it makes fans ever so angry that they won’t just hustle for the sake of hustling.

The problem with the All-Star game is who is participating. Star players are expected to run the offense, fight through double teams, and make life hard on themselves to make life easier for their teammates. Stars are stars because they generate buckets, but a watchable basketball game is about so much more than that.

Basketball is about screening, off-ball movement, lockdown point-of-attack defense, banging bodies with men who have but one job– bang bodies the hardest, and everyone falling into place next to a centering singular force. Stars make high-level basketball entertaining, but the men who fill the roles next to them make basketball possible. They’re the garbage men, utility workers, and firefighters of the NBA world. You forget they exist, but if they didn’t, you would know right away. And that’s why the All-Star game feels so wrong. There are no role players making basketball basketball.

In an effort to right that wrong, I’ve made my 12-player Role Player All-Star team. It contains five guards, four frontcourt players, and three centers. As a general rule, these players have a sub-23% usage or play limited minutes. I also decided to omit players who have made All-Star teams in the past. When splitting hairs in the middle of the league, you quickly realize there are far more than 12 worthy candidates, but for one reason or another, I believe these 12 are the dirty dozen who deserve decoration.

*All stats are as of Sunday, February 9th at 11 AM Eastern Time.

Back Court

Aaron Wiggins: SG Oklahoma City Thunder

Aaron Wiggins is having the best season of his career. While his 3-point shooting is down (37.8%) from the prior two seasons (44.4%), that’s a worthy sacrifice to take on a larger role. The Thunder are the best team in the league because of their defense, but you don’t threaten for a +13.0 net rating without an elite offense too. Wiggin’s shooting has been paramount to their success and is the secret ingredient to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander the unstoppable bucket machine. When he and Gilgeous-Alexander share the court, the Thunder post an offensive rating of 128.7, when Wiggins sits their offensive rating drops to 120.47 even with Gilgeous-Alexander still playing. Of more importance is how his presence improves SGA’s effective field goal percentage (eFG%) from 56.3% to 59.3%. That takes SGA’s efficiency from 4% better than the league average to 9.6%, which honestly might be the difference between an MVP and a parade of second-place votes. All told, with Wiggins on the court, the Thunder’s offense improves by +6.19 points per 100 possessions compared to when he sits. His shooting has been vital to everything they do on offense, and he’s making the absolute most of 10.6 points per game.

Derrick White: SG Boston Celtics

At this point, putting Derrick White on this list feels like cheating. He genuinely might be the Celtics’ second-best player, which probably just makes him a real All-Star. But until that fateful day, he’ll have to settle for this. White is a high-volume, high-efficiency 3-point sniper who is also one of the best defensive guards in the league. There’s a legitimate case to be made that he is the best 3-and-D player in the sport. He is one of two players averaging over three threes and one block per game this season. The other guy is Victor Wembanyama. If the Celtics weren’t absolutely stacked, White could very easily be putting up All-Star-looking stats. Instead, he’ll have to settle for 16.1 points, 4.1 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game while being integral to a championship contender.

Josh Hart: SG New York Knicks

Josh Hart is a cheat code. He’s listed as a shooting guard and legitimately plays there, but he also gives you center-like production. Hart is averaging 14.4 points, 5.7 assists, and 9.6 rebounds per game on 65.8% shooting on twos. Among players who have attempted over 100 layups, he leads the entire league in field goal percentage at 69.3%. This isn’t a small sample blip either, he has attempted 241 layups. Hart is having by far the best season of his career and is a key cog in the Knicks offensive-death machine. The value in having a multi-positional guard, who does all of the dirty work, and gives you the best rim finishing in the league is immense. It’s a cliche at this point, but he really is the heart of the team, and he’s firing off 500 beats per minute.

Payton Pritchard: PG Boston Celtics

The presumptive frontrunner for Sixth Man of the Year, Payton Pritchard is an easy call for the role player All-Star team. In 52 games off the bench, he’s averaging 14.1 points, 3.4 assists, and 7.6 3-point attempts per game on an eFG% of 62.9%. It’s impossible to blend that volume and efficiency and not be valuable. The Celtics offense improves by +5.27 points per 100 possessions to 122.28 with Pritchard on the court. Oh yeah, he’s their designated heave specialist (0-6 this year), so he’s actually shooting even better from three. There’s not much more you need to say. Pritchard has become an awesome offensive bench guard through his elite shooting. He just needs to let his hair grow out a bit so he doesn’t look like a skinhead.

Ty Jerome: SG Cleveland Cavaliers

Ty Jerome has yet to reach 1,000 minutes played, but he has quickly become an NBA nerd favorite. In 19 minutes a night, Jerome is averaging 11.3 points, 3.4 assists, and 1.2 steals on an eFG% of 60.6%. He has been lethal from distance and in the mid-range and has been the Cavaliers’ secret weapon. Jerome is almost always deployed next to Darius Garland or Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland’s two All-Star guards, and this serves a distinct purpose. No coach in their right mind will put their best perimeter defender on Jerome when Garland or Mitchell is out there, but maybe they should because the Cavaliers just spam Jerome on the ball against lesser defenders. This tactic of exploiting mismatches has been a boon for the Cavaliers’ offense and Jerome’s statistics. It’s unlikely to be as fruitful the deeper Cleveland traverses in the playoffs, but the role player All-Star team is a regular-season award. Jerome has been awesome this year because he has found a coach and roster that knows exactly how to deploy him.

Front Court

Chris Boucher: PF Toronto Raptors

The Raptors have had an incredibly trying season. They can’t score and they can’t defend, except when Chris Boucher is playing. In 17.4 minutes a game, Boucher is averaging 10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds a 59.8% eFG%. His offensive box plus/minus (BPM) of 3.3 leads the Raptors and their offensive improves by +5.98 points per 100 possessions with him on the court and their net rating improves by +6.93. You’d be wrong, but it wouldn’t be crazy to say that Boucher has been the Raptors’ best player. The only reason he hasn’t played more is that Scottie Barnes, the Raptors’ actual best player, plays power forward as well. Honestly, I have no idea why he’s still even on the team. Boucher has been fantastic as a stretch-four, has experience at small forward and center, is 32 years old, and is on an expiring contract. Presumably, someone would have traded something for him, and since he’s older, blocked for playing time, and could sign elsewhere in the offseason, I’m not sure what’s the point of keeping him around to give your lottery team 17 minutes of league average performance a game.

Santi Aldama: PF Memphis Grizzlies

Santi Aldama has been a key cog in the Memphis Grizzlies frontcourt machine. His evolution into a knockdown corner 3-point shooter (43.6%), efficient 2-point finisher (59.8%), and solid defender makes him a fit in any of the Grizzlies frontcourt configurations. He’s best deployed next to a center as a power forward but can play center and has moonlighted at small forward in super jumbo lineups. He’s averaging career bests across the board with 12.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game. His partnership with Jaren Jackson Jr. has led to a defensive rating of 105.67, and he can credibly hold the fort without him. Aldama has quietly become the quintessential stretch-four and should land a bag in restricted free agency.

Deni Avdija: SF Portland Trail Blazers

A month ago, I don’t know if Deni Avdija would have made this list, but a lot can happen in a month. Since January 19th, the Trail Blazers have gone 10-2 with Avdija averaging 16.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists on 53.5% eFG%. However, the most impressive part is that Avdija has averaged six free throw attempts in that span, which has seen him produce a true shooting (TS%) of 60.4%. On the season, his averages of 14.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game on a TS% of 58.8% are still impressive for a role player without a true star to play off of. The Trail Blazers are probably still a bad team, but with Avdija they go from awful (-7.38 net rating) to merely meek (-3.71 net rating). Long term, I don’t know how great it is that the Blazers are winning these games, but Avdija is proving to be the building block they imagined when they traded for him in the offseason.

Amen Thompson: SF Houston Rockets

This is probably Amen Thompson’s only chance to be on this list because he’s fast leaving the role player distinction in the dust. Thompson is in a tier alone as an athlete and uses his rare physical gifts with aplomb. For the season, he’s averaging 13.9 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game on an eFG% of 56.5%. He’s one of eight players averaging over 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists, one steal, and one block per game this season, and he’s third in BPM among that group behind Anthony Davis and Victor Wembanyama. Thompson’s ability to impact the game on both ends is already special and his offensive role should only continue to grow. What makes him so special is his unclassifiable positionality. You could imagine a world where he’s a rim-pressuring point guard, a lethal small ball five, and everything in between. However, right now, Thompson is an elite defensive wing who makes his living on offense off of cuts, transition, and offensive rebounds. That could change in an instant, but until it does, he’ll just have to settle for the elite role player moniker.

Center

Daniel Gafford: C Dallas Mavericks

Daniel Gafford is a Hasan Whiteside All-Star. His box score numbers are absurdly good, which, in turn, leads to great metrics, but he may not be anything more than a neutral contributor. However, I don’t really care if he isn’t a “winning player,” because I want to list off these stats. In 22.1 minutes per game, Gafford is averaging 12.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game on an eFG% of 69.7%. All of that adds up to a BPM of 4.0, which ranks 18th in the league, tied with Jarrett Allen and Jalen Williams. The reason I call him a Hasan Whiteside disciple is the Mavericks are better without him on the court (-0.63 on/off net rating) and their defense craters by 3.9 points per 100 possessions. For a role player, that’s fine, but if it weren’t for his insane per-minute production, he wouldn’t sniff this list. Gafford has been both awesome and mediocre this season depending on your flavor of value.

Goga Bitadze: C Orlando Magic

Goga Bitadze is one of my favorite unheralded players in the league. This Caucasus mountain of a man has quietly been one of the Orlando Magic’s best players and still doesn’t receive the praise he deserves. His defensive BPM of 2.7 ranks sixth in the league, and he still finds time to chip in an efficient 9.0 points per game. The Magic, when healthy, have a crowded center rotation with Moritz Wagner, Wendell Carter Jr, Bitadze, and Jonathan Isaac, but injuries have thinned it out considerably for large stretches. However, none of that has mattered because Bitadze has been able to step in, wall up, and provide the back line for the league’s third-ranked defense. Bitadze is probably the Magic’s best center, but he’s almost certainly the least famous. I doubt that troubles Bitadze all that much, but he deserves far more shine than he gets.

Jay Huff: C Memphis Grizzlies

Jay Huff has played by far the fewest minutes of anyone on this list (569), but that has more to do with the Grizzlies than him. Huff, in 12.6 minutes a night, is averaging 7.6 points, 3.4 3-point attempts, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks per game on an eFG% of 66.4% and 42.1% 3-point shooting. In limited action, he has produced a BPM of 3.9, making him one of the best reserves in the league. The key to his production is he is a legit 7’1 floor spacer. Even if he were a defensive liability, he’d be worth playing heavy minutes, but he’s an average contributor on that end. Unfortunately, the Grizzlies frontcourt rotation of Jaren Jackson Jr., Zach Edey, Brandon Clarke, and Santi Aldama has left Huff short on minutes. There’s a world where Huff is on a thinner roster, playing 25 minutes a night, and absolutely lighting it up. He’ll be on a bargain contract for the next few seasons, and hopefully, he gets a run as a full-time backup.

For any inquiries about work, discussion, and the like you can email me at nevin.l.brown@gmail.com.